The Cripple and The Traveler
by Just A Passing Through Writer
Summary: When a young squid trying to continue his life as normal winds up meeting a rather crazy person and gets forcibly brought along to help them on their quest, they start to find out a lot more is going on in Inkopolis than they first thought. (ONE SHOT.)


_**A/N: This is just a one shot I wanted to do, sorry if it sucks, I hope you all enjoy it at least, take care.**_

* * *

Inkopolis City was the freshest place in the world for all the young squid and octopi kids. Turf Wars were the hottest trend alive, and it seemed like every other week a Splatfest would kick off for everyone to have an excuse to party. The sun had set, and the streetlights were starting to turn on to illuminate the way to a small restaurant, the Grill Eel. Many people were gathered there, and so were a team of three inklings and an octoling.

"That was amazing how you used the baller to explode under them all," Olla, a young pink tentacled octoling, laughed. Her tentacles were done up into a small spiral shape.

"Wouldn't have been able to do it without Giallu," a similarly aged green tentacled squid, Verdi, pointed a thumb to their other teammate at the table, "He covered me from that one dude that almost caught me."

The bright-yellow haired inkling, Giallu, quietly drank from his soda. His tentacles were overgrown and dangling while being draped over his shoulders, with no clear care given to them, or for what style they were in.

"And tomorrow, we'll be S Rank for sure!" Roze, another female squid at the table cheered. Her tentacles were as pink as her namesake.

" _ **Yeah!**_ " the other two joined the cheer. Giallu kept his gaze on the table center. A hot plate was set there, grilling away some cut up fish. The group had been coming here to celebrate their ranked turf war wins for a few weeks now.

"What's wrong, Giallu? You haven't said anything since we won... Is your leg hurting again?" the octoling looked to the side of the table where his left leg was exposed. It looked fine, but above the kneecap there was a decent sized scar visible.

"I'm fine, Olla," Giallu finally answered. He took some of the fish off the hot plate and put the whole thing in his mouth, not caring for the heat as he munched away.

"You sure? You fumbled way more today than usual. Isn't that right, Verdi?" the pink haired squid asked their teams leader, whose green hair was done up into a spiky style.

"If he needs help, he can tell us Roze, you know that he never hesitates with that, even if he's only been on our team a month," Verdi replied, remembering the time when Giallu first joined them. They were down a player and he offered to play with them. Before they knew it, they were a team quickly climbing the ranked ladder.

" _H-_ hey, don't eat all the fish!" Olla exclaimed. Their yellow haired friend was eating half of the hot meal already, and the other members were quick to notice.

"Why not? I'm hungry," Giallu raised an eyebrow, with the fish half in his mouth already.

"Go ahead and eat up! It's on Verdi anyway," Roze giggled.

"Wait, I don't remember agreeing to that! This place is expensive!" Verdi gawked.

"Weren't you just bragging about how much money you had this morning?" Olla reminded him, noticing the green squid's regretful look for his boastful ways already.

" _T-_ that was different!"

"Really? How?"

"Did you waste money on games again?"

" _Just..._ At least let me have the biggest pieces!"

Giallu idly chewed on his food as he watched the three bicker on. A small grin slowly appeared on his face. He rubbed his leg with one hand, though it let out a sore, tightly gripping pain. _"You guys are great… Shame my time's up for you though,"_ he thought to himself, watching the three other teen cephalopods use their utensils to try and grab the biggest cooked fish off the hot plate before one another could get it.

 _"I'll get ready, tonight."_

* * *

Giallu currently was walking back to his apartment through the ever-encroaching darkness illuminated by the slowly rising moon. The streetlights guided him the way home. The many store lights began to brighten around him as he walked. Just then, he heard an odd clanking noise and noticed a nearby bush shaking some.

" _What the…?_ A rabbit?" Giallu mumbled, eyeing the shadowy shape of the creature. He saw a weird rabbit come crawling out from the bush. However, things became stranger when it got under the streetlight. "That's not a normal rabbit…" the yellow haired squid raised an eyebrow. The rabbit looked completely robotic. Its body had a pink tint, and its long and large loppy ears ran down its back. It had yellow glass goggles for eyes, which shimmered with light from them that seemed to almost be flickering.

"Are you alright, little guy?" Giallu crouched down. His wounded leg hurt a little from doing so. The robot rabbit had a symbol on its side that appeared to be grey and looked like a squid with cracks along the icon's body.

" _Uh…_ " he was confused when the robo rabbit suddenly collapsed. The lights coming from its eyes died out as it shut down. Part of its forehead opened up, revealing a crank. Giallu looked around for a moment, as if trying to find the presumed owner of this over sized toy.

"Well… I guess your owner wouldn't be happy to find you like this," the teenage squid sighed, reaching down and grabbing the crank before beginning to turn it in a clockwise fashion for a few minutes. The sound of clanking machinery felt satisfying to him for some reason.

After ten minutes or so, the crank suddenly retracted back into the robotic rabbit. It began to whir back to life. Its eye lights began to shine brightly. " _ **Whoa!**_ " Giallu sounded as he fell back in surprise, when the rabbit hopped back to its feet, shaking its head briefly, with its ears making swooshing noises. The robo rabbit came to him and began rubbing its head against his hand as thanks.

" _Um…_ You're welcome…?" Giallu said. He watched it begin hopping off back where it came from. "This city gets weirder and weirder by the day," he shrugged, before getting back onto his feet and continuing back to his apartment, pretending that he saw nothing there. It felt like a momentary lapse in his sanity.

"I just need to get packed and moved before morning," Giallu reminded himself as he continued on his way back home, though for some reason, he had a bad feeling, like his leg hurting was trying to warn him of something, but he could not put his tentacle on what exactly.

* * *

Giallu had spent the next few hours by himself in his apartment. The place seemed pretty barren. There was no really unique furniture, no computers or games. Everything was simply blank like he had just moved in.

"Moving is the most energy draining thing ever… Yet even after all this time, I'm not used to it," the yellow squid commentated to himself as he filled the second duffel bag with spare parts for various weaponry. The first bag was stuffed with all his clothing that seemed hit and miss when it came to how fresh it was.

"With that our weather forecast for tonight as well as our show is done! We hope you listeners have a wonderful night and… wait what?" the nearby radio had a news station on the air. The sudden break in the broadcast was confusing to him.

" _Don't tell me…_ " Giallu reached over and turned up the volume on the radio before resuming packing his bag. He had heard this very similar report with barely any changes other than the location for the last two months, it always started this way.

"There was an unfortunate attack from salmonids that had appeared from a sewer pipe near Arowana Mall. Thankfully, with the large amount of squids and octopi around there, the rotten fish were barely able to break one window! For their service, we thank them dearly."

" _Well…_ that story had a lot happier an ending than it normally does," Giallu raised a surprised eyebrow. For the last few months, salmonids were appearing all over Inkopolis to acts of violence and of vandalization, presumably as revenge for all of the golden eggs that people working under Grizzco Industries had taken.

"With the amount of attacks on the rise, civilians are being implored to not play hero, but to take care of themselves and each other above all else, while the police continue working with Mr. Grizz to develop the special division-"

Giallu flicked the switch, and the radio was off. He stuffed the set into the bag, and zipped that bag shut. "Time to go," the yellow tentacle squid threw his two duffel bags onto his back and began to leave the room, and the apartment altogether, leaving only a framed picture on the bed of him, Verdi, Roze and Olla all showing their sharp teeth while smiling in various poses. It had been taken after their first ranked win together.

* * *

The teenage squid had walked a good distance away from his apartment. He had hoped it was lone and peaceful walk out of the neighborhood. Suddenly, he felt someone grab one of his bags and yank him back off his feet, causing him to fall back.

" **Ow!** What was that for?!" Giallu looked up over his shoulder to see Olla standing there. He was irritated already.

"You were acting weird. I wanted to come check on you," the young octoling informed him as she helped him back onto his feet. She felt bad for causing his leg to hurt from the fall. She had only intended to stop him so they could talk. "That and I live here too," she pointed a finger to the apartment complex.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you that it's rude to knock down someone when they have a handicap?" Giallu brushed the dirt off himself, a snarky look showing on him. Olla did not answer that witticism.

"Where are you going? You didn't mention anything about a trip," Olla questioned him. He wanted to respond jokingly, but he saw that concerned look those big eyes of hers held and lost his ability to act short with her any further.

"I'm leaving," Giallu simply said. Despite the many late night cephalopods that were around them, things turned quiet and tense.

"Leaving…? To where?" Olla tilted her head, wondering if he was going to visit family members.

"I'm sorry… I'm just… leaving the team. Now that I helped you guys get up to S, I'm no longer needed," Giallu stated, though knew no matter how he worded it, his reply would sound weird.

" **What?!** But why? You fit in great with the team…" the upset octoling requested an explanation, the yellow tentacled squid looked up to the night sky, regretting not leaving sooner than he did.

"Because I just like to help people. I stay on teams long enough to get them to S. Then I take go to help others," Giallu claimed. He looked disappointed with himself for being caught like this again. The last time this happened was a while back and he had hoped it would have been the only time.

" _But…_ then what about us?" Olla whimpered. Her response confused him.

"Us?" the teenage boy tiled his head. He thought there was nothing special between the teams he joined other than the camaraderie of teamwork.

"Ever since you first joined us, you hung out with me constantly…" Olla explained, "All those double dates we went on with Roze and Verdi, too…"

"Dates…?" Giallu blurted quietly. He was even more confused by that. "Sorry, you got that all wrong… I never saw those as dates. I just didn't want you to feel lonely. Trust me; I know what it's like to be the third wheel," Giallu apologized. It wasn't just that he never saw them as dates, but that he was never informed they even were dates. He could tell by the look on Olla's face that she was stunned. So he took his opening to change into his squid form and began swimming off in a hurry.

"H-hey! Wait!" the young octoling called out, but by the time she realized he was running from her, he was too far away for her to catch up with. The young octarian whimpered as she held her head, which was now writhing with dejection.

 _"How am I going to explain this to Verdi and Roze…?"_

* * *

After a short while of top speed swimming, Giallu found himself near Inkopolis Square, a part of town he was not used to coming to. He knew now though that he would have to get used to it. He sat down on a nearby bench. His leg was now throbbing heavily.

"I don't know if I can make it to my new place," Giallu groaned. It was not the first time he had to sleep outside due to poor planning. But he certainly wished it didn't come to this again.

Just then, a familiar metallic clanking caught his attention. When he looked over he could see that same robotic rabbit approaching. When it got up to him, it shook its head a little, its ears swishing with each slight movement.

"You again? Do you need another recharge?" Giallu asked. He appreciated the distraction from his pain, but was more confused as to why this living toy was not back with its owner yet.

The yellow squid watched the robotic rabbit's back open up, revealing a rather small sized purple squid that seemed to be sleeping away soundly. The rabbit appeared to be acting as some sort of sleeping pod for her.

"I don't remember you having that with you last time we met…" Giallu got up from his seat, leaving his two duffel bags on the bench. He picked up the tiny inkling with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, can you wake up?" he shook the squid slightly. After a few more callouts, the purple squid's eyes opened up. She blinked, confused by the sight of him in front of her. "Glad you're awake, princes…?" Giallu stopped when she suddenly turned back into her human form and kicked him in the face to make him let go of her, both of them falling to the ground.

"Sorry, I've already been kidnapped three times this month, so the fourth time'll have to wait. I'm trying to do something important," the squid girl was probably only a year younger than him, donning a navy blue shirt and black shorts. Her short purple tentacles were pulled back into short pigtails. Giallu sat up with his now bruised face, looking at the short squid that had almost knocked a tooth of his out.

" _ **What are you talking about?!**_ Blame your little carrier there! He's the one that brought you to me!" he argued. He noticed a odd pair of strange looking goggles on her forehead.

"What? Kanin, did I oversleep again?" she asked her robot. The rabbit scratched its head. She pulled out a cellphone to look at the time and date. "It's the twenty second? Aw, man, I've been asleep for two days!" the frustrated girl looked to the rabbit bot. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"Who… are you?" Giallu asked while trying to keep his cool. She came off as so weird that she would be well known across Inkopolis.

"I'm Roxo," Roxo put away her phone, "You have any idea where I am? Last thing I remember was letting Kanin here carry me while I slept when we were in the middle of nowhere."

Giallu raised an eyebrow. He felt uneasy just being near her already. "I'm Giallu, you're in Inkopolis. I'm guessing you're a tourist?"

Roxo blinked. Seemed it was just the place she wanted to go. "Didn't expect to get here that fast… Well that's good at least," she petted her robotic rabbit, sounding glad that she made it here. "You live nearby?"

"Kind of… why?" Giallu picked up his bags, planning on leaving now that his leg pain was lessened.

"Great! I'm going to be your house mate for a bit," Roxo began to walk, putting an arm around him to get him to start moving too.

"W-what? Why?!" Giallu stared at her. The robo rabbit hopping along behind them to follow its master.

"Because, buster," Roxo sneered, "You tried to kidnap me! The least you can do is let me crash at your place while I handle my business here."

"I didn't try to kidnap you!" Giallu squawked. She barely listened to him.

"So you don't mind? Great! Lead the way!" she shoved him ahead. Giallu hesitated, but finally accepted with a huff. He felt too exhausted to fight this any longer.

" _Fine…_ come on, it's this way," he sighed. He figured it would be simpler to let this complete stranger spend a night or two with him in his new apartment than it would be to call the police.

* * *

When they did arrive to his new apartment Giallu had to immediately get seated on the couch in the living room. He fell onto it and let out a relieved sigh now that his leg had a little pressure taken off of it, the two had been enough of a distraction to keep his mind off the pain for the short time being.

"This is your place? It looks blander than my home…" Roxo walked toward the kitchen. The yellow squid could hear her raiding his refrigerator already.

"This is my second time in it," Giallu stated, watching the robotic rabbit climbing on his recliner and lying down as if claiming it to be its new bed. He rested his head back on his couch. "Where are you from anyway?"

The purple squid took a while to answer. The food she found in the kitchen was probably a month old at least, since the only time Giallu had come here was to simply stock the refrigerator in case he got forced here earlier than planned. "Clam Cove. It's a little south from Coral Creek," Roxo called back, returning to the living room with a bag of chips in her mouth and a few soda cans. She put them on the coffee table. She then sat down by her rabbit.

"Coral Creek…? But that alone is over four hundred miles away from here!" Giallu found her claim hard to believe.

"There weren't any other towns on the way here that I needed to stop in, so I just let Kanin carry me," Roxo claimed, and began to dig into the bag of chips. Giallu had a bad feeling she was going to eat him out of house and home in under an hour.

"And do you normally fall into comas when you ride in your rabbit?" Giallu did not expect a real answer though.

"Nhever longer fhan a dhay," Roxo spoke with her mouth full of a quarter of the salty chips. She swallowed them all and went to guzzle one of the soda cans down in one go.

"I know people come far and wide to live in Inkopolis… But why didn't you just take a plane or a boat? Instead of a-… Rabbit?" Giallu figured it was better to inquire about her for the time being. He didn't want to have a wanted criminal living with him for sure.

"That's too expensive! I have other places to go to after this anyway… Oh, that's right!" Roxo stopped eating for a moment. She rummaged through her pocket and pulled out a thick unorganized bent journal that was covered with stickers and containing a rainbow of colored pages. Roxo opened the book and flipped through the pages a little until it was on a page that had pink and green paper with _**'INKOPOLIS!'**_ written boldly at the top of them. "Do you know anyone with these names?" she passed the book over to him.

He looked over the five names that the page held. He became confused by the parts written by each name, some had _'old squid'_ or _'young squid'_ put down by the names. One had _'possibly a jellyfish?'_ wrote down with a small drawing of a cute jellyfish squid hybrid. "No, I don't know anybody with these names… who are they?" Giallu raised an eyebrow. He handed the book back to her. From what he saw in it, there was nothing written down but names and each destination she had been to, marked with a pair of vibrant stickers.

"Family members and friends of my family," the purple squid replied, returning to her food as if she lost interest in this conversation now that she knew he wasn't going to help her track them down.

"You have that many friends and family?!" Giallu gawked. If even only a quarter of that book was filled, it was ridiculously hard to believe.

"Yeah! Most people in clam cove move away because of how boring it is. This is just the list of friends and family that should still be alive," Roxo reached over and picked up Kanin with some difficulty. "I wanted to show them all Kanin! I found him washed up and fixed him good as new! He only blew up three times so far, too!" Roxo nuzzled her robotic rabbit, which seemed to want to remain sleeping.

" _I've let an insane person into my home again…_ " Giallu buried his face in his hands. His leg no longer hurt, but his head did in its place. All this nonsense was driving him mad.

"And now you're gonna help me!" she pointed at him.

"With what? I already agreed to let you stay here."

"You're going to help me find my family on the list for Inkopolis! And if you don't help me, I'll tell others about how you tried to kidnap me," Roxo explained with a somehow confident smile on her face, without even flinching once throughout the whole sentence.

" _I'm going to sleep…_ " Giallu made to walk down the hall to his bedroom.

"So, you'll help?"

" **No.** "

"Yay! Thanks so much!" Roxo squealed happily, hugging Kanin in joy. It was like he was in a sick opposite day prank.

" _For the love of the great zapfish…_ " Giallu then collapsed into the floor. Mental exhaustion seemed to have finally take over his whole body, forcing him to fall asleep before he could even see a pillow.

"Oh, don't tell me he had a heart attack… I'm not falling for that trick again!" the purple squid huffed, putting the robotic rabbit back down and going over to drag Giallu to his bed. "Kanin! Get an ice pack, and see if you can find any pliers!" Roxo ordered to her rabbit. Kanin just laid back down, letting the crank pop back out of its head as if pretending to need a recharge.

* * *

Giallu groggily opened his eyes. However, he could tell something was wrong immediately when he realized he was in his squid form and was in a tiny metallic shell. He yelped and started hammering on the metallic walls with his head.

"Hm? Oh! I think he's awake, Kanin!" Roxo exclaimed when she heard the frantic banging coming from her robotic companion. She opened its carrying compartment and watched the yellow squid hop out immediately, turning back into his human form.

" _ **Where am I?!**_ " Giallu asked, looking around in a panic. It only took a moment after to realize he was in Inkopolis Square.

"You wouldn't wake up, so I put you in Kanin," Roxo simply stated. The two were approaching Crusty Sean's Food Truck. Where there was a small line of squids and octopi there to get some of the best food on wheels in Inkopolis.

"I didn't think I turned into a squid while I slept…" Giallu held his head, unsure how that happened. Sleep transforming tended to be only an issue for squirts who just fully turned into inklings at the age of fourteen.

"You turn into a squid when you get too hot, so I just held a tentacle-dryer to your head until you transformed."

"Seriously?" Giallu blinked, looking down to the robot rabbit for confirmation, unsure if he should be embarrassed by this discovery. "So, why'd you bring me here?"

"You said you'd help me search, that's why," the purple inkling hummed.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't…" he could barely remember last night but knew he certainly had not done that.

"'Ey, squiddos! What can I get you?" Crusty Sean asked. The menu was written down on the small blackboard.

"Three of whatever tastes the best… and do you mix soda?" Roxo asked. The crustacean raised an eyebrow, but he nodded.

"Not many ask, but it should be simple enough. What do you want mixed?" Sean hummed, letting the young squid girl read over the variety of sodas available.

"Mix them all in the largest cup, please!" Roxo hummed. Crusty Sean went wide eyed at that request. There was a momentary silence as if he was waiting for her to confess to joking, but she simply stood there, giving him a pleading look with her big eyes.

" _Uh…_ yeah, yeah… that'll be 2,500 coins," Sean said after the shock started wearing off. The purple tentacled inkling motioned Giallu to pay. Her cohort shrugged, getting out his coin card.

"And give me a regular kelp cola," Giallu said before paying up. The two went over to a nearby table to wait for their food.

"I also brought you along because I knew when you woke up, you'd be hungry and would pay for my breakfast too," Roxo added to her confession once he paid, helping Kanin into the third seat so the robotic rabbit could join them at the table.

"You're evil… why'd you order for three, though?" Giallu brushed past that talk, while noticing she had packed his inkbrush for him as well in his bag.

"Because I'm hungry enough to eat for two," Roxo pulled out the journal and began to go through it before returning to the list of names for Inkopolis she presented it to him. "One of the people on this list I found out delivers stuff to Shella Fresh every week, and today is delivery day," the strange squid explained, motioning her head to the shoe store. All they had to do as play the waiting game and keep an eye out for delivery vehicles.

"Are you really traveling everywhere to just show off your robot there?" Giallu requested with what he could remember last night. Back then he was too exhausted to ask. Now his brain was in a slightly better condition. He doubted even someone as crazy as her would do this for such a small reason as to show off.

" _Well…_ I guess not. I didn't really have any reason to stay in clam cove either," the purple inkling stated, but seemed half unaware of her own reasoning either, though it was clear that she did not think on it much.

"Because it was too boring?" Giallu asked, going based off what she told him last night.

"No. Clam Cove was fine to me…" Roxo explained, "But when Mom and Dad told me about our family and their friends, and all the fun times they had together, I wanted to meet them, but they didn't know where they were, so I started with any vague clue I could find and go to whichever towns or cities they moved to."

Right after though, he noticed Crusty Sean bringing over their food and drinks. "Enjoy, squiddos!" Sean then went back to his food truck with a smile.

Roxo barely waited a second before beginning to stuff the food into her face. Giallu kept quiet as he began to eat his breakfast. He rubbed his sore leg as the two started eating.

 _"That blind dedication… that endless optimism… how does she live with that while being alone all the time?"_ the young boy pondered in his head as he idly chewed. Roxo was the most insane squid he had ever met in his life. He doubted the robot rabbit gave much mental relief on these long journeys of hers either.

Just then, they saw a delivery vehicle start pulling into Shella Fresh.

"Oh! There he is!" Roxo immediately scoffed down her food. She grabbed her soda and the journal and ran off. Kanin hopped out of its seat to follow its master.

"Never thought I'd see someone be so excited to meet a glorified stranger," Giallu shook his head. He stood up to begin following them as well. He had a feeling she was going to drag him anywhere she wanted, even if he did not give his consent.

The delivery driver getting out of the truck was a young jellyfish, wearing a little white cap and a polo shirt. He noticed the two squid kids approaching him.

"Are you Blobter Jamin?" Roxo greeted the jellyfish who was only slightly older than them.

"That's me. Who are you two?" the light toned jellyfish replied, suspicious of them when he was addressed by his first and last name.

"I'm Giallu… her slave," Giallu casually said after drinking from his soda. He was curious to see where this would go, his associate nodded in agreement with the slave claim.

"I'm Roxo! Your cousin! You knew my Dad when you were little. His name was Lacivert, do you remember him?" Roxo introduced herself, crouching down to her cousin's height. The young jellyfish stared at her like she was pulling a prank.

"Lacivert? I must have been real young when I knew him, because I don't remember being related to any squids," Blobter responded. They watched her begin to flip through the journal to the ending pages where some documents were.

"Your grandpa Craig married into the family, but didn't change his last name," Roxo countered, presenting the journal. The page it was on had a history record of her cousin's recent family.

"Where'd you get all this info from…?" Giallu raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, I paid that urchin over there. He really helped a lot!" Roxo pointed to the coffee shop across the way where they could see Spyke idly sat at his laptop.

"I'm really related to you?" Blobert questioned, looking the journal over. In moments, he became enraptured with his family's history. The young jellyfish began rubbing his cheek in amazement. " _Wow…_ I really don't remember anything about Clam Cove…" he murmured. He felt his squid cousin pull him into a hug tightly enough to almost squish him.

Giallu let the purple squid keep the reunion up since things went better than he expected. However, he saw the robo bunny focus on staring at a manhole cover near the center of the square. "What's up little guy?" the yellow inkling asked.

"I want you to meet Kanin, my best robotic friend!" Roxo suddenly snatched up the robo rabbit, leaving the partially crippled squid alone there.

 _"Does that mean she has more than one robot?"_ Giallu raised an eyebrow, but he refocused his attention back on the sewer cover. He felt worried for some reason.

The yellow squid gasped as suddenly the manhole cover was blasted up by a strong torrent of green goo. A dozen differently sized salmonids began to emerge from the mess. The heavy cover flew into Crusty Sean's food truck, denting it heavily and scaring the crustacean into fleeing.

" _Wh-_ what's going on?!" Blobert stepped back in fear as he saw the platoon of salmon monsters flooding into Inkopolis Square.

"I think we're under attack!" Roxo pointed out, but looked eager, "I haven't been in a good fight in a while!"

"Well help me fight them off then!" Giallu drew out his inkbrush. With one flick of the wrist it unfolded, the bristles coming out of it. He pulled an ink tank out of his bag and threw it over his shoulders to let it rest on his back.

"That's going to take a minute…" Roxo looked to her pet. The yellow squid however ran to meet the salmonids head on.

Thankfully several others in the square were entering the battle to help. Giallu swung wide to splatter three of the Mohawk haired fish into yellow puddles before they could get their pans even close to anyone

"This is getting ridiculous!" A familiar voice got his attention as he splattered several more of the disgusting fish with a luna blaster.

" _Verdi…?_ " Giallu was in shock. His last team's leader was just as surprised to see his teammate.

"Talk later!" Verdi ordered as he splattered another salmonid closing in on his friend, causing a green burst of ink from its defeat.

"Maybe you should try closing the pipe?" Roxo called out while she was rummaging through her robotic companion's storage compartment for her weapon presumably.

"Great idea! I'll just hop up there and push down on the geyser of goo!" Giallu sarcastically said as he kicked one of the salmonids away that tried to hit his kneecaps with its frying pan.

"Uh oh…" Verdi gulped as they saw something larger beginning to emerge from the sewer. It seemed to be a giant salmonid covered in metallic scales.

"A steelhead?!" they gawked. This was nothing unusual when the workers for Grizzco were gathering up golden eggs, but in all the salmonid attacks in Inkopolis, they never had any special enemies appearing before.

The steelhead charged up a large bomb of green goo from its head. It threw it down, barely giving a few of the ones fighting against the salmon chance to run. Multiple squids that had been trying to fight off the salmonids were splattered.

"All we're doing at this point is letting the respawn points get clogged," Verdi said as they were beginning to back away. Giallu was starting to feel his arms become exhausted from having to constantly swing his inkbrush around. He was able to deal with several salmonids at a time, but it was endless, coming back with even larger numbers it felt like.

Then like a stroke of luck, the two squids' tentacles suddenly lit ablaze with bright energy. Their specials were ready for use.

"Take the big guy out and we'll do the rest like we did in our game last night!" Giallu ordered. His green inkling friend nodded. The two noticed the steelhead charging up another bomb assault. They both combined their attacks to make the bomb detonate, causing the steelhead to explode into a mixture of yellow and green ink, dropping a few golden eggs around the puddle.

"Now's our chance!" Verdi activated his special, creating a bomb launcher. He began throwing a volley of ink grenades that began to blow up one after another, decimating the squadron of salmon.

"Here goes!" Giallu used his special next, creating a ball around him, partially filled with yellow ink. The young squid began to move through the opening created for him by his friends' ink bombs, running over a few salmonid like a steamroller. He covered the sewer entrance, stopping the geyser of goo and salmonid for the moment.

"I hope this works…" the teenage boy began to charge the baller up, watching as it inflated with ink, until it suddenly erupted into a large burst of yellow ink, covering the surrounding area and stopping the geyser entirely.

"Where'd he go?" Roxo looked around since her forced friend seemed to have vanished.

Giallu suddenly landed in front of her, thrown to there from the explosion, a rare occurrence with the baller power. " _My back…_ " he groaned.

Blobert came out from hiding in the back of the delivery truck when the noise lessened. "Is it over?"

"It is… I didn't even get a chance to fight though," Roxo sighed, seeming disappointed. She could not find her equipment inside of Kanin. The robot rabbit saw a small salmonid trying to approach them, but the pinkish red rabbit hopped around before kicking it away as far as its powerful legs could.

"Thanks for the help…" Giallu coughed sarcastically. He was glad their plan worked. He saw Verdi come over and help him back up to his feet.

"We need to talk," the green haired inkling claimed, putting his blaster away.

" _Joy…_ " the yellow squid boy let out a frustrated sigh.

"Yay!" Roxo cheered, "We can go to the coffee shop and Giallu can buy more info for me!"

Giallu gawked. "Why do you want to mooch off my wallet?!"

"Because it's like having a living gift card!" the purple squid girl giggled.

"Fine, whatever… let's go," he gave in, mostly because he knew she would have some clever way to steal his wallet. The three moved on, letting whichever cleaning crew the place had handle the leftover mess from the salmonid battle.

* * *

Things began to become rather quiet amongst the three of them as they talked in the café.

" _So…_ Olla showed up at me and Roze's place last night. She was crying her eyes out," Verdi started off the conversation as simply as it could go. Roxo was still looking through Kanin for her weapon, with no real interest in the conversation at hand.

" _I figured…_ " Giallu sighed, rubbing his sore leg. He felt terrible for what he did. Even for the delusion he caused to the young octarian.

"She said you dumped her and you were leaving our team," the green inkling tried to sound sympathetic but serious at the same time, "First, I didn't know you two were dating. And second, I knew you would leave eventually. I just didn't expect it to be that so soon."

"We never were together…" Giallu corrected his ex-leader, "What do you mean you knew I'd leave?"

"Well, when I saw your leg, I was worried that you might have a medical condition…" Verdi stated, "I ran into your last team when I asked about a yellow squid with a leg scar."

"You spoke with my past team?" Giallu stared, unsure if he should be upset with this or not.

"And your team before them, and your team before them," replied the green squid, "Plus, the other two you were with at the past year too."

The purple inkling beside them now had all her attention averted towards this conversation. "You joined over five different teams in a year?" Roxo chirped, looking to her newest friend in amazement.

" _I…_ I just want to be helpful. I can't do much when I reach a really high rank, but I can at least get others up to that rank," Giallu explained as simply as he could put it.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Verdi asked, "You wanted to just vanish into thin air?"

"I suck at saying goodbye… Why do you think I have a scar on my leg? The first time I tried to say goodbye to my original team didn't go well," Giallu stated, his gaze averted downward to the table. "One cried, another became speechless, and the last shoved me down… caused me to get a bad scratch. In under a week that scratch turned into an infection that got into my muscle... They said I had to get it amputated, I told them to take out the infected part only... No matter how bad it would hurt long term."

"So, you let them cut out part of your legs inside, instead of cutting off the whole limb, even though you knew it'd hurt a lot?" Verdi let out an exasperated sigh. That sounded exactly like his friend's level of blind stupidity.

"What can I say? I like my leg… I've had it as long as I can remember," Giallu joked, but was still clearly sad recalling his history.

"Partial amputation… You really are an idiot, considering how much techs out there now," Verdi declared, his friend could have had a robotic leg and no pain if he had simply gone with the amputation. He looked over to the purple inkling "By the way, who's she?" the green teen had been meaning to ask that since the start of this now, but he was a little too distracted with the serious part of the conversation. Now he was more interested in how the two met.

"I'm Roxo! He tried to kidnap me last night," Roxo said with a bright smile.

"I did not!" Giallu countered. The green inkling rubbed his head, feeling bad for his friend.

" _Right…_ I need to go check out new blasters, mine is starting to give out on me. I'll see you around, Giallu," Verdi patted the yellow inkling's shoulder and left before he could get dragged into the inevitable fight he and Roxo might have.

"You're a lot more interesting than I thought you'd be!" Roxo hummed, pleased with what she had just heard from the green squid.

"Thanks…" Giallu sighed, holding his head while his elbows rested on the table.

They then noticed Spyke come over from his seat and rest some papers on the table between them. "There's the info ya paid for, girl," the shady sea urchin spoke.

"Thank you!" the purple inkling hummed, letting the sea urchin return to his seat. She picked up the papers and began to look through them.

"You paid to find out more about your family here?" Giallu questioned, wondering why she didn't buy all these together earlier.

"I did. I was testing to see how accurate that they'd be with Blobert… Oh, and here's your coin card back!" Roxo pulled the coin card from her pocket and threw it onto the table. The yellow tentacled squid groaned, amazed at how she was able to steal his money without him even noticing at all.

"So, what do they say?" Giallu tried to brush past the theft, moving the robotic rabbit aside to take a seat beside her to view the paper. His leg could barely tolerate any more pressure.

"Well… _ooh…_ this isn't good…" the purple inkling muttered after some quick glossing over them. "Three of the four on this list aren't alive anymore," Roxo let her yellow friend see for himself.

"Old age… Oil spill… Chemical accident… They all died last year," Giallu rested the papers down the only two of the five alive. Blobert, and another inkling their age. "I'm sorry for your losses," he felt terrible for her. She went so far to meet these people, only to be too late in a sense, this news was sure to be an awful hard hitter.

"I knew everyone on the list couldn't be alive, but still… Sorry, Kanin, I guess our stay here won't be as long as I thought," Roxo apologetically spoke to her robo rabbit, hugging it. One of the big reasons they started this expedition to a lot of the world was to meet their family and friends of her family.

"The last person lives downtown… Come on," Giallu stood up, ready to leave the café with her and the rabbit.

"Are you only wanting to come because you feel bad for me now?" Roxo asked rather bluntly as she picked up Kanin and began to follow him.

"Well, if I tried to leave, you'd drag me along anyway… so yes?" he shrugged. That was enough of an answer to get her to smile again. The two headed off to find her last family member in Inkopolis.

* * *

The destination they traveled to was more of a suburban area of Inkopolis, though its state was because most of the area was under reconstruction. Only recently they had finished tearing down the area they planned to rebuild.

"I feel bad for anyone living here…" Giallu commented as he looked high and low for the home with the address written on Spyke's given paper.

"Usually it takes me a long time to find my family members. That Spyke guy made things a lot easier… Do you think he'd come with me to help find them?" Roxo questioned her newest friend. She was riding on Kanin's back, letting the robotic rabbit carry her while its master viewed the document.

"Spyke doesn't like to move around a lot," the yellow inkling stated. He was simply glad to have a distraction from his leg. That talk with Verdi stressed him out a tad.

" _Aw…_ I wish I could bring someone along on my adventure sometimes… But I don't want to rip my family or friends out of their lives," Roxo exclaimed, rubbing her pet's head.

"I know what it feels like to be lonely too… Don't let it get to you," Giallu patted her back. He knew that there was a lot different between them and their reasons for their seclusion, but he was more than aware that no matter how small the feeling was, it remained equally horrible. "You said you had more robots? Where are they?"

"Well, Kanin wasn't the only one to wash up on the shore. One other little bot and some schematics did too! The bot blew up on me and it was in too many pieces to fix. The other's only a blueprint inside of him," Roxo pointed down to her pet like it was a trusty safe. "Maybe I can build him when we finish here… I don't have many family to hunt down in Inkopolis after all," the young girl sighed. Before that conversation could go further, they came to a sudden halt. Kanin stopped without warning, accidentally throwing its owner off onto the ground face first.

"What's going on?" Giallu questioned when he noticed the pink robot's eyes focusing on the house that they were just outside of. He then had a realization hit him. "Roxo, your pet there was doing this right before the Salmonids attacked the square… Did he actually know what was going to happen?"

Roxo looked over her pet. "Well… he has a sensor in him, but I couldn't get it to work. Maybe it only can detect Salmon?" she spoke her mind aloud. The robot rabbit was a lot more complex than it seemed, so much so that she barely understood half of the things its internals held.

"This is the place too…" the yellow inkling noticed. That very home had the matching address that Spyke had given them. Kanin had led them just there. They began to approach the front porch of the small home.

* * *

When they got to the front door, they could see a small note stuck over the doorbell.

 _"Doorbell is broke, so just shout **DING DONG** really loud!"_

Giallu was confused. "Wouldn't it be easier to just knock?" he made to knock right away.

" **DING DONG!** " Roxo's shout caused his ears to ring.

"Gah! For the love of the great zapfish…!" Giallu held his ears in pain. This note was not a joke. "Don't… do that again, Roxo!" he yelled at her. A huff escaped his lips afterwards. "So, is this person a family member or a friend of your family?"

" _Uhh…_ I don't know yet," the purple inkling stated while going over the papers. "Her name is… Spectra. She's your age," Roxo stated with the first thing she could figure out with the extensive information the papers held. Kanin stared intensely at the door, sitting idly between them.

" _Hello…?_ " they suddenly heard a soft voice catch their attention as the door had been slightly opened. The young inkling with mist white hair appeared.

"Um, hey there. Are you Spectra?" Giallu asked.

" _Yes…_ " she replied. Though they could tell she was far from the most active squid. Her skin was almost pale enough to match her tentacles.

"I'm Roxo! I'm your… _Uhh…_ quarter-sister?" Roxo tilted her head when looking over the papers. Her friend tapped on her head with his knuckle.

"Thinking before you speak is a lot more useful than you'd believe," Giallu took the papers to correct her, "I'm Giallu, her… escort, I guess. She's your first cousin once removed."

"I only have a bunch of brothers and sisters. No cousins…" Spectra closed the door without warning on them.

"Well, she's not going to invite us in…" Giallu rubbed his head, trying to think on what to do.

"Come on! Let's go through a window then," Roxo stated, hopping over the porch banister to get down faster.

"You think she leaves a window unlocked and won't call the police when she sees two strangers in her home?" the inkbrush wielder asked. His purple tentacled friend shook her head.

"Who needs an unlocked window when you have a twenty-pound robot you can throw? Or a big rock," Roxo hummed. Kanin looked down to its master as if even the robot was doubting her sanity now.

"I think I have a better idea…" the older inkling rolled his eyes. He knocked on the door, without the loud interruption this time.

"Look, Spectra. Roxo here came all the way from Clam Cove to meet you. There's proof that you're related in these papers," Giallu tried to talk through the door. He had a good feeling that the white-haired squid girl was paranoid of any unannounced visitors. "Please open up, because she isn't going to leave you alone until she can at least talk to you."

After a few more moments they saw the door slowly begin to open. Spectra was peeking half of her head through the open door. " _F-_ fine… but please stay in the living room…"

"Alright!" Roxo eagerly turned into her squid form, flopped back onto the porch and swam inside.

"Come on, little guy," Giallu picked up Kanin and followed the purple squid inside. Spectra closed the door quickly behind them.

* * *

Spectra's home was different than they expected the inside of it to be. At first they had thought the lights were off, but they were apparently special light bulbs that toned things down, but they gave the rooms an orange and green tint side by side.

"I feel like we're in a giant den," Roxo stated. They sat in the living rooms long curved couch. The white-haired inkling was looking over the papers she had been given as proof of her relation to the purple squid.

"It's creepy, yeah… Are you allergic to sunlight?" Giallu asked, since it would explain the special bulbs.

"No… _I just…_ like the lights this way," Spectra shook her head. Giallu had met a few shut ins. She was no exception. Probably the biggest shut in he had seen.

"I feel like I've seen you before. Did we fight a lot in ranked?" Giallu requested to know. He felt bad for forcing her into allowing them into her home, but he figured it was far better than getting arrested due to his friend's blind determination.

"Uh… most know me for being employee of the month four months in a row at Grizzco Industries," Spectra claimed. That was what she was most known for.

"Grizzco has an employee of the month?" Giallu raised an eyebrow. He never heard of this before now.

"I had nothing better to do but work all the time… I quit a month ago," the white-haired squid sighed. She missed those days but clearly did not regret her decisions. "I never really liked to ask about my family… I have a bunch of brothers and sisters running around Inkopolis. As long as they aren't bothering me, I won't bother them," Spectra threw the papers aside. There was no hiding that she was a recluse.

"I'm glad I finally get to meet you! Now I'd like to introduce you _toooooooooooo_ Kanin!" Roxo picked up the robot rabbit and held it in front of her cousin's face.

"…hello?" Spectra said to the pink bunny. She let it rest on her lap. It was heavier than she expected, almost like a concrete block.

"You haven't seen any salmonids around here, have you? There was an attack in the square this morning," Giallu explained. He was more concerned though about how Kanin detected one possibly in this home. He was hoping that it was simply one stray Salmon roaming around under the house or the likes.

" _W-_ what? _S-_ salmonids around here?" Spectra stammered. She would have stood up, but the heavy robot kept her sat there.

"Sorry, but I'd rather be safe. Stay here while I make sure it's clear," Giallu stood up, holding his leg for slight support as he began to make his way to give a quick glance over the house.

"W-wait! I thought you promised to stay in the living room if I let you in!" The white squid tried to get up again, but she couldn't, like her limbs were too tired to throw Kanin off.

"Awwww. I think Kanin likes you," Roxo claimed. The pink rabbit stared at Spectra with its light glassy eyes, not moving from where it sat on her lap, keeping her pinned down there as if this was all planned.

* * *

Even with the simplest of glosses around, Giallu saw things that seemed to stand out strangely from the kitchen alone. He could see several bags of cat and dog food. Something was strange about outside the back of the home. He was sure of that now that he had view into the backyard. It looked more like an odd cage with a high privacy fence and tarps draped over the top, yet the drape had random holes in it like it was made to let rain fall in.

"Never thought I'd see someone this messy," Giallu murmured. For some reason he was becoming nervous as he searched. He noticed a slightly ajar door for a closet, inside there were several ink tanks filled with green ink to the brim. There were also two boxes full of orange light bulbs.

A thud sounded that caught his attention from the upcoming room. "…I thought Spectra lived alone?" Giallu wondered. He cautiously shuffled further up the hallway, he saw the door that had a vibrant and bright rainbow pattern. A tiny cloud sign, reading Nursery, hung on the front. Giallu was about to open the door, but right when he turned the doorknob he heard something.

"Wait! _**Stoooop!**_ " Spectra ran up the hall in an almost blinding speed and tackled him. Both fell into the door and burst it open, both rolling into the following room.

Roxo followed with Kanin moments after "Is everything okay? Spectra ran faster than my mom whenever I lit something on fire," the purple squid asked aloud, looking at the two dazed squids lying on the floor.

" _Wuh…?_ " Giallu moaned. Then something tiny and plastic hit against his forehead to snap him out of his daze. He was surprised at what he saw with his cleared vision. "What the shell?" the yellow squid boy saw a very tiny salmonid attacking him with a plastic spoon. The mini salmon were never a threat on their own. They tended to only be a problem for those unfortunate enough to not be paying full attention.

"And I thought Kanin was adorable! Look at this little guy!" Roxo squealed, quickly picking up the small salmonid. The tiniest of the rather notoriously hostile fish were cute to many, so much so that they tended to feel bad for splatting them.

"Let go of Steve!" Spectra suddenly snatched the salmonid out from her cousin's hands and hugged him close to her chest. The tiny fish looked very content and happy to be held by her.

"I never thought I'd see a salmon nursery in my life," Giallu stated, looking over the room. There were probably half a dozen tiny salmonids around. Some were playing in a kiddy pool full of green ink, some were napping in a large pet bed and two were munching away on kibble like it was a buffet.

"More like a salmon nursery lab," Roxo pointed up. About fifty golden eggs dangled from the ceiling, each shimmering brightly like they had been polished for a week straight. Three incubators were set up on the wall as well, each with two golden eggs in them.

"What's going on here?" the yellow squid asked Roxo's cousin.

" _I…_ " she hesitated. She closed the door. "This is why I quit Grizzco."

"You quit Grizzco to raise salmonids?" Roxo tilted her head. She looked down to her robotic rabbit who was the new victim of the plastic spoon assault by another two baby salmonids. Kanin did not react much beyond looking at them confusedly, the sound of the robots metallic body only clinked lightly from each hit from the spoons.

"And I guess this is why you didn't want anyone, no matter how close to you, coming anywhere near your home?" Giallu guessed. The pale squid nervously nodded, afraid to confess to this.

"Your lab looks a lot more stable than my workshop did," Roxo wanted to inspect the room further. She was immensely interested in technology despite her lack of engineering prowess.

"They're going to be tiny forever… I wanted to help them. They're so cute and harmless, I had to do something. One snuck onto a boat when we were leaving, I found him and took him in," Spectra put down the tiny fish from her arms to let it join its siblings with beating on the robotic rabbit. "That one is Steve. Then there's Greg next to him. Over there is Jeffrey, Sarah, and…"

"Alright, they're adorable," Giallu stopped her, "But do you know what happens when golden eggs are left out?"

Spectra looked to the floor. "…It attracts salmonid unless they're stored properly because salmonids can sense the distress of the eggs… But I have them all taken care of! Special heating balls are put with the eggs up there, none of them should be remotely near distress."

"What do you do with the eggs that don't have tiny ones in them?" Giallu was anxious for the answer. Things might get a lot more hectic either way.

"I put them somewhere other Salmonids can find them… Usually the eggs get put in the sewers since a few salmon go through them," Spectra claimed.

Giallu and Roxo looked to each other. Giallu turned back to the pale squid. "How long have you been doing that?"

"Uhh… two weeks, I guess, since I quit working for Mr. Grizz," she answered, noticing one of the tiny salmonids hugging her leg, causing her to gain a small smile.

"Why does it matter, Giallu?" Roxo wondered. The worried expression on his face though made it out to be a clearly big deal.

"She's been baiting salmonid here, when they think there's more golden eggs to find, more come with them," Giallu pieced together, "She's been causing the attacks!"

"Wait, really?!" Roxo was shocked.

"I realized that when you told me they attacked the square… I didn't know they were bringing bosses either," Spectra had a look of disdain, having hoped the attacks that were being reported were simply an unfortunate coincidence. She looked over the many small salmonid that she saw as her children essentially.

"Where else have you hidden eggs?" Giallu whipped out his cellphone to get a quick map up on the screen.

"Hammerhead Bridge. It's the only place that hasn't been attacked yet... I hid nine eggs in the sewer pipes there," Spectra answered. The yellow inkling quickly opened the door, taking leave in a hurry.

"Giallu? Where are we going?" Roxo questioned, picking up Kanin and beginning to follow along.

"If there are that many eggs, that means they're going to attack there soon!" Giallu answered, "We have to try and stop them."

"Really? That means a big fight! Let's go!" Roxo ran off ahead.

"Wa-wait, I'll come too! This is my fault!" Spectra called out, rushing to catch up. Her salmonids would be fine on their own.

"Great! Come on, we got a long run ahead of us," Giallu led the way from there, glad to have at least that much energy on his side.

* * *

Hammerhead Bridge was currently a turf war zone. The bridge was unfinished and renowned for its constant delays in construction. The place was more known for being a large fighting area than anything now. It was a simple blue team versus green team today. A majority of the map was covered in the blue sides ink, they had been so aggressive that the enemy team was basically forced back into their spawn.

"Just another minute now and we've won!" a blue tentacled octoling exclaimed.

"What a joke," one of his squid teammates laughed, "They didn't even cover a nook or cranny! The idiots just tried to blindly charge at us!"

" _Uhh,_ guys? Check your map. I think one snuck around us," another blue teammate commented. The other three looked down at their phones that displayed the map for them to see. They noticed immediately that part of the center of Hammerhead Bridge was getting coated in green from seemingly nowhere.

"That's not possible… They're all still in spawn…" the young blue octoling pointed out. The last time he checked, there was no special abilities that allowed others to duplicate themselves like ninjas.

"What's going on?" one of the green team members tilted their head when she noticed their baffled blue enemy team. Neither sides were responsible.

"Hey, something's in the air," another green squid pointed to the tiny figure flying above Hammerhead Bridge. It was a vague shape of two rectangles on each end of a circle.

"Is that a… Trash master?" chirped another squid in the green group.

"You mean a flyfish?" a green octopus corrected. They could see it better now that it had gotten closer. They watched as the flyfish's dumpsters opened up and began to fire a several missiles from them.

"Oh, sea-snails! Run!" by the time that one blue teammate had realized what was happening, they were blasted with the several green goo bombardments from the missiles, covering part of the blue ink covered battlefield in a large green coating that salmonid always used.

* * *

The team of three had spent the last thirty minutes running over to the bridge. They arrived a short distance away from hammerhead bridge, they saw what was happening the moment they arrived. Dozens of salmonid, as well as multiple special salmonids, had emerged from the sewer pipes that were below the bridge as well, they had climbed onto the bridge from green goo geysers that had subsided shortly after.

"Does spawn protect from salmon smacks?" Roxo questioned as she noticed all eight of the contestants, including the two cat judges, hiding in the spawns respectively.

"They do. They'll get teleported back to the tower when the judges declare a winner," Giallu had seen everything imaginable get thrown at those spawns. He doubted the salmonids could do anything to them.

"W-what do we do? There's so many. It's like they started a round before anyone even arrived on the job…" Spectra was still unable to believe that this was her fault. The golden eggs from the sewers were long gone by now, but the salmonids figured there were more around, and had begun to attack the place just to retrieve them.

"Get rid of the big guys. Throw the golden eggs they drop into the water below," Giallu started with his first plan as he got out his inkbrush, "Then the little guys will be easy as starfish once they scatter to try and get them."

"Okay…!" Spectra nodded, agreeing with the plan. She took out a bamboozler charger rifle.

"Don't worry! I'll help too this time! …Just need to find my weapon," the purple squid looked to Kanin. Her cousin and friend looked to each other, hesitant to jump in.

"Just hope the others in their spawns will help when they see things calm down," the yellow inkling remained optimistic. Spectra nodded. The two then turned into their squid forms and super jumped toward Hammerhead Bridge.

"Okay, Kanin, let's find that key now!" Roxo smiled. She opened the rabbit up again to begin rummaging through it, the robot stayed idle.

* * *

The two landed on Hammerhead Bridge. They ended up on different ends of it. Giallu had to immediately spin around to splat a few salmonid with three quick swings of his brush. Once they were dealt with, he put his inkbrush on the ground and ran off, leaving a trail of yellow ink behind.

"Sorry, little guys…" Spectra apologized under her breath. She started running across the metal grating that made a bridge of itself. She threw two ink bombs which exploded on a rather large group of the salmonid, scattering them. Spectra noticed that a large golden salmonid was running from one end of the bridge, with a half dozen regular salmon, following from the other side to corner her.

"I'm not used to this terrain," Spectra groaned, charging up a shot and firing at the goldie, hitting it in the face and coating it in a thin layer of white ink. But that did little to stop it. She quickly turned into her squid form and fell through the grate to escape the pincer attack. Spectra landed and turned back to her human form, she quickly charged another shot, firing it up through the grate bridge, hitting the goldie and splattering it. Three golden eggs were left on the ground below.

"Now I just have to get these in the water and- Ow!" Spectra was interrupted by a heavy pain that hit her in the back. The salmonid on the bridge jumped down to get to her, one having slammed her spine with a frying pan upon landing. "I'll have to get them later…!" the pale squid quickly turned back into her squid form. She started swimming away desperately, if she got splattered here, it would be terribly hindering to their mission.

Giallu saw a steel eel coming at him from one corner, spraying green goo everywhere it went. "How did they even sneak all this stuff in?!" the yellow squid asked, preoccupied with dealing with the several salmonid trying to bash his kneecaps in with frying pans.

He saw a scrapper coming them from the other direction. He was unsure what to do. He was fighting on his own now, while being basically surrounded. He threw a splat bomb in front of the scrapper, creating a yellow ink spot. The junkheap fell into it, temporarily stalling it.

Giallu began to swing his inkbrush like a madman, splattering several after three swings. Once he had a clear way, he swam around to the back of the scrapper while it was stuck dropping more bombs. He swung at the salmonid driving it, in the back.

"There we-… go?" the yellow squid was stunned. By the time he splatted the scrapper and had the three golden eggs resting around him that the steel eel had circled around him and now had him trapped. "Hey! If any of you spawn cowards are still hiding, can you lend me a hand?" Giallu called out to the empty air. He had no reply, but he then realized his tentacles were beginning to blaze with energy. The steel eel was about to crush him in the ever-enclosing circle.

"Here we go…" Giallu activated his special ability, creating the baller around him in an instant, though he had no chance to move as the steel eel wrapped around him tightly, in an effort to crush him and the partially ink filled ball he was in.

"Now I understand why Mr. Grizz doesn't like giving some specials to us…" the teenage squid groaned. He was stuck like this. He wanted to detonate the baller, but if it was not enough to splatter the steel eel, then he will have conceded his only defense. If he got splatted, he would respawn somewhere far away.

As he debated this to himself though, the steel eel pilot was hit by a charger shot. He saw Spectra waving from above. She was then chased off once again by a number of salmonid.

"That'll do," Giallu began charging the baller until it erupted with yellow ink. It was enough to finish off the steel eel, leaving nothing behind but a few more golden eggs and several spattered salmon in large yellow puddles. He grabbed one of the golden eggs and chucked it off the side of the bridge to let it fall to the water below, but before he could do anything else, he saw several dark green markers appear around him.

"Oh yeah… Forgot about the fly fish," Giallu turned into his squid form to swim away so he can avoid the missiles and refill his ink tank.

* * *

"Man, Kanin, it looks like they're having all the fun! I thought the plan was to throw all the golden eggs into the water though," Roxo and her robotic rabbit watched from afar. She had been searching this entire time for her weapon. "They need something faster… come on, Kanin, pleaaase give me the key. I know you hid it somewhere in you," the purple teenage inkling begged the pink bunny bot. It looked to her and back to Hammerhead Bridge before lowering its head and ears with a begrudging whir. "Don't worry, I'll be more careful than last time," she promised.

A short moment passed, the robot raised its left paw. It then opened up, revealing a small device that fell out and clattered onto the ground.

"Thank you! Now I can join in on the fun!" the partial inventor hummed happily as she picked it up. The item itself was a weird wrist brace with a slot in the center for something to slide into it, and a weird attachment on the side.

"Okay, Kanin! I'll make sure you don't get dinged up too much," Roxo took out her cellphone and tapped the screen a few times. A weird app appeared, showing schematics of some sort assembling together. She slid it into the bracer. The young squid girl then took the crank used to charge her rabbit out from its head and attached it into the side of the brace.

" **Standin' by for combination,** " a weirdly hypnotic and calm voice spoke up from a speaker inside of the robot. Kanin hopped up onto its master's back, hanging on by the young squid's shoulders. " **Standin' by for combination.** "

Roxo grabbed the crank for the bracer. A toothy grin quickly appeared on her face. "Here we go, Kanin," Roxo began to turn the crank on the bracer. The phones schematics started emitting weird noises as the blueprints on it began to change to a squid figure like an x-ray.

 **"Gotta go fast! _Clash-Clang-Clash!_ Gotta go fast _Clash-clang-clash!_ "** the voice exclaimed in a quicker tone with each turn of the crank. " **Ready!** " the voice declared. Kanin let out bursts of steam from its joints, as its body parts began spreading across its master's limbs.

Roxo felt the robot's paws reach the back of her hands, and then spread out and wrap around each finger like metallic gauntlets. "Ow…! This is a lot tighter than I remember it being last time…" Roxo spoke. When they got to her legs, they attached to her feet and wrapped around to make sturdy boots.

The head of the robotic rabbit emerged on top of her head, before it split into multiple parts. The glass cylinders acted as goggles, and the rabbit ears slid down and attached to the end of her tentacles. The rest of the robot's body wrapped around her upper torso to form a makeshift vest.

" _ **Combination complete!**_ " the voice declared. The combined Roxo and Kanin stood there. The pink armor almost shimmered in the sunlight.

"Time to have some fun," she hummed, she super jumped toward Hammerhead Bridge, to join the battle at last.

* * *

The flyfish was preparing another barrage, when suddenly something crashed into the salmonids' flying weapon. The pilot inside looked around, confused.

"Hi!" Roxo suddenly appeared on the cockpit, scaring the salmonid inside. The salmon hissing at her through the glass did little to detour her.

"What's going on up there?" Giallu raised an eyebrow. The flyfish had just stopped firing at them, and they appeared to be no longer piloting straight.

After a few more moments of the air rodeo, Roxo kicked the glass cover of the flyfish to break it. "Salmon can fly, right?" she giggled, grabbing the salmonid piloting it from inside and throwing them out. Its terrified scream was noticeable to her ears. The squid hopped off from the falling machine before it hit the ground and exploded into green ink. Three golden eggs flew away from the blast zone.

Roxo landed right beside Giallu, accidentally crushing a salmonid under her now very heavy feet. "Hey, Giallu!" she greeted.

"Roxo… that's your weapon?" the yellow squid asked, utterly awestruck. He splattered the poor salmon stuck under her feet to spare it the futile flailing. He was just shocked to realize that her robotic rabbit had more tricks than he believed.

"Nope. I don't have anywhere to fit a weapon. This just pushes my system to its limits," Roxo answered. She looked over to see Spectra desperately trying to avoid a stinger trying to blast her with a constant stream of green goo. "Probably got twenty minutes before my body starts to burn from the inside out. But hey, that's what makes it fun!"

" _Oh…_ " Giallu face palmed, anxious that they were on a time limit, which made things even more frustrating. Maybe Roxo was just making him be anxious. "J-just get rid of the golden eggs! We'll handle the splatting," he ordered. That seemed to be the best plan now that they had this rabbit squid around. The purple inkling nodded and hopped up onto the grate bridge, where she started running the opposite way at high speed. The yellow squid continued the opposite way.

* * *

A few minutes were spent, the small group had executed their half-baked plan so far fine. The two teams that had been turfing were still not helping yet due to their entrapment in spawn by multiple steel eels. They were circling to protect each other from getting splattered.

"Punt!" Roxo kicked a golden egg, watching it go flying off Hammerhead Bridge. She picked up the other two. She saw several salmonid coming at her with a goldie leading them.

"Kanin, come on. You can keep your temperature down. We're nowhere near the time limit," the purple inkling told her robotic companion when she felt a little hotter. She threw one of the golden eggs at the salmonid, distracting most of them by making them go after it. "There we go!" Roxo threw the other golden egg off the bridge. She then turned to the goldie as it tried to attack her, she quickly responded by headbutting its skull to daze it. She then wrapped her arms around the golide tightly.

"It's quicker to throw one thing off the bridge instead of three, right?" Roxo grinned. The big golden salmonid made incoherent screeching noises. She began spinning around. After the third full circle, she swung, sending the goldie flying like a baseball. Its wail sounded as it fell over the bridge and into the water below.

"And I thought I was the craziest one in my family…" Spectra sighed when watching from afar. Her tentacles were glowing brightly. Her special was ready. A stinger ray set its sight on her as it passed through several objects. "Seriously?" the white-haired squid realized she could not drop down from the grate bridge. She had been going between there to escape with to abuse the salmonids' low intelligence. Now there were several big salmon below her and she was out of places to run to.

Spectra activated her weapons special, pulling out two large tenta missile launchers. She took aim at the stinger, and then the large salmonids below, each of them getting a marker placed on them. She began firing several ink missiles. The stinger's pillar of pots began to instantly fall apart into a puddle of white ink. Three golden eggs were left behind after its head hit the ground only to detonate too.

Roxo almost ran into one of the barrage missiles that blew up the several fat salmonids, knocking her down. "Ow! Hey that almost hit me!" the purple inkling hollered. She stood up, grabbed one of the small salmonids by their hair and used it like a living mace to smack another two away before she threw it aside.

"Sorry!" Spectra shouted her apology. She watched as Roxo scurried off to get rid of the golden eggs dropped by the stinger. But while she was distracted, the young salmonid caretaker heard an odd noise. "Oh, for splats-sake…" Spectra held her head as a large bomb thrown from a steelhead landed directly on her, splatting her instantly into a puddle of green goo that drizzled through the grate bridge.

"Well… that's not good," Giallu groaned. All this time so far trying to free the squids and octopi trapped in their spawns, and the steel eels were stopping him from dealing enough damage to splat any of them.

* * *

Roxo threw the last golden egg the stinger had dropped off hammerhead bridge. But just as she watched the egg fly away, she began to feel an overwhelming heat all over her body. "Huh? Time's almost up already?" the purple squid chirped. She noticed steam puffing off her back from her robotic rabbit's main body it wouldn't be long before the rest of her body started steaming too.

" **Giallu!** " Roxo called out, rushing to him. The yellow squid was stuck dealing with a drizzler. When he got his attention taken away for half a second, this gave the metal umbrella carrying salmonid the chance to hop away.

"What is it Roxo?!" Giallu turned to her. They had dealt with a majority of the boss salmonids and only a small number of the throwaway goons, however they were being constantly forced to run instead of fight. Since Spectra had been splatted, they lost their longest-range support to top it off now as well.

"I'm being cooked like an oyster! Why haven't the others come out of their spawns to help yet?" Roxo explained her problem. Her left arm began to emit steam as well from the gauntlet the yellow squid felt his anxiety worsen.

"It's those stupid Steel Eels. They take one step out of spawn, they get splatted instantly, and each pilot is protecting each other. None of their specials are ready either since they got splatted when the salmonids came…" Giallu explained. His baller even then had no chance of helping in this situation. Soon they would have more salmonids after them. It was a dire situation.

One of the purple traveler's legs began emitting steam as well. "Well, I never used Kanin's special… It's what caused the second explosion to start with. The first explosion was by overcharge... But I can try it again if you want!"

"Fine, just do it! If you can free one team from spawn, they can help get the other team out," Giallu agreed. He headed off to buy time and make sure nothing tried to stop the boiling squid from saving them.

"You heard him, Kanin. Try not to melt my brain for an extra five minutes please," the teenage inkling girl requested while patting her head, looking over at the spawn for green team. Roxo shook her head. The rabbit ears at the ends of her tentacles made swishing noises as they began to glow a blazing purple and pink. However, Roxo could not use her special yet. She felt the ground rumble beneath her and saw a red ball sticking out from green ink. Something was swimming toward her.

She barely hopped up in time, narrowly dodging the large maws of the glorified shark of a boss salmonid. That gave the young girl an idea. When the burning hot squid landed on top of a small platform, she hopped to the next one. The maws swam right after her, letting nothing get in its way, leaving a trail of green goo behind it.

" _Oh, not yet…!_ " Roxo could feel her whole body starting to burn up. She was getting frustrating by this horrid drawback.

" ** _Emergency!_ Disengage combination immediately!**" the voice from Kanin's speaker declared. The young squid smacked herself in the head with the rabbit cover to try and get it to pay attention.

"I know! Just last a little longer!" Roxo ordered. Ignoring the annoying emergency alarm that was acting like salmon bait. She had to roll across the ground upon landing when a large pair of salmonids tried to smack her out of the air. Yet even rolling in the ink did not cool down her steaming body.

"Hup!" she hopped up as high as their combined legs could go, above the steel eels around the first spawn. The maws emerged from beneath them, grabbing one of the steel eels with its giant gob instead of the purple inkling, now causing them to scatter partially.

"There it is!" Roxo grinned, her eyes locked onto the steel eel's now disrupted formation, which was now destroyed by the maws' bad judgment. She pulled back her fist as she began to fall. Sparks erupted from her robotic companion's combined parts. " **Super splash down!** " she rocketed toward the ground. Upon impact, a large explosion of purple ink erupted, splattering everything caught in the explosive ink vortex.

" _Sweet zap-fish…_ " Giallu was awestruck by the explosion of ink he saw from afar. It even grabbed some of the salmonids' attention, most of which were staring with their mouths hung agape. The yellow squid began to run right over to the spawn he saw that explosion come from. "Roxo! Hey! Roxo!" he called out, in search of her

Roxo lay there, surrounded by over a dozen golden eggs. Steam wailed off her unconscious body. Giallu dropped his inkbrush aside as he went to her. One touch though burned his hands like touching an active stove. "J-jeez!" he winced in pain.

"What's up?" sounded a voice from a green inkling. Giallu noticed that the four greens were finally coming out from their spawn, now that the ones trapping them within it were dealt with.

"You guys get rid of the rest of the salmonids!" he ordered. The four immediately started going straight for the other team's spawn to free them as well. Giallu was glad things would be handled now, while he hoped it would be the last time he needed to play leader.

"What do I do…?" he asked, desperate to figure out a way to get Roxo out of that combined form. He saw the bracer on her arm. He reached down and grabbed the phone from it, pulling it out in hopes of it having a way to get the robot off her.

" _ **Disengaging…**_ " the voice tiredly announced. Kanin began to retract his parts and limbs off of Roxo, separating the combined form of theirs in seconds.

Giallu looked over at the robotic rabbit, as it was back to normal, though once it was fully rebuilt it immediately fell over, out of power. "Hey! **Roxo!** Can you hear me?" he lifted her up slightly in his arms, so she could sit up her burning body. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bottle of water. "You're the biggest idiot I've ever met, but that doesn't give you an excuse to die on me!" Giallu poured the water on the purple squid's face and upper body, trying his best to cool her down.

"Meow?" the voice of a cute cat got his attention. When he looked to his side, he saw a tiny black and white furred cat with an arrow shaped tail, holding an ice pack.

"Thank you, li'l Judd," Giallu let out a relieved sigh, taking the ice pack. He assumed it was just for Judd to use when things got too hot. He put the cold pack against Roxo's forehead, practically hearing the sizzle when they came into contact. All the while listening to the sound of the battle going on to the side. "Help me move them. It'll be two less things for those guys to worry about," he requested, picking up Roxo bridal style. He'd let Li'l Judd handle Kanin. The only way the small cat could move the robotic rabbit though was by grabbing it by the ears and slowly pulling it behind them.

* * *

In the next thirty minutes, things began to gradually calm down. The salmonid on Hammerhead Bridge were defeated by the united efforts of the two teams. The gold eggs were tossed away into the waters below. Unfortunately however neither team was considered winners for this turf war, but the freed respawns made things far easier for them in the fight.

Giallu remained seated there on a small platform covered with overhead tarps acting as makeshift shade. He had Roxo resting behind him on a few boxes.

"You really did good out there," Spectra commented, while being seated beside her new friend.

"Thanks…" Giallu exhaled. He was trying to recharge Kanin with the crank, as an excuse to distract himself. So far there had been no response from the robotic rabbit, like its internal circuitry had been fried from maintaining the transformation for too long.

"Is she going to be okay?" the pale squid questioned, looking to her cousin with worry. So far there was no reason to panic. Roxo was simply laying on her side, sucking on her thumb and using the ice pack as a pillow.

"So far she seems fine, but I'm not a doctor," Giallu exhaled before letting himself flop onto his back, feeling immensely exhausted. He gave up on trying to charge the robot rabbit. He had been doing it for twenty minutes straight, and there was still no response.

Things became rather awkwardly silent between them fast. There was not much more they could say. All they could do was wait and hope Spectra had brought a few more bottles of water for her cousin, but it was a lot harder to make Roxo drink something in her sleep than it was to feed a newly hatched salmonid formula.

" _D…_ do you think I should turn myself in? All these attacks have been my fault…" Spectra asked for his input on these matters. An unknown number of cephalopods had been injured and she couldn't help but blame herself.

"You could, but there's no evidence of any golden eggs at these places aside from the ones the bosses dropped… so you'd probably wind up in a psyche hospital just 'cause some folks called you attention desperate. Besides, your babies need you," Giallu reached over and patted her back, though he could tell he was not cheering her up too much or making the future look any brighter for that guilt she held. He tried to come up with another reason for her to brighten up. He laid back with his arms behind his head. "I know how you can help make up for it long term instead of short term."

Spectra turned her head to him, her fullest attention caught. "What do you mean?" the baby salmonid caretaker was confused, but more so by how prison was considered short term.

"You're raising salmonids in a completely new environment, specifically modified for them to grow in…" Giallu explained to the best of his ability. "You can just start recording things more, write stuff down and you'll make billions off it in a few years."

"You mean… I can be a researcher at the squid research lab instead of a Grizzco grunt?" Spectra's eyes seemed to light up from envisioning that future.

"Well… I'm pretty sure it'll become the universal research lab at this rate, but yeah, pretty much. All you have to do is keep being a good mommy," the yellow inkling smiled, glad to see her be cheered up. "Who knows? Maybe with how you're raising them, they might gain actual brains too."

" _Oooh…_ " Spectra stopped listening halfway though. Her dreams of being a great mother to the salmonids she took care of consumed her attention.

A groan suddenly came out of Roxo's lips. The yellow squid hopped up and went right over to her when he saw her starting to stir awake from her sleep.

"Roxo? Hey, can you hear me?" Giallu questioned , shaking her gently

"I don't want to eat more bugs, Kanin. They're boring and too juicy…" Roxo rolled over. Giallu caught her before she fell onto the floor.

"I figured your sanity was kept in your dreams, but I guess you weren't born with any to begin with," the yellow squid joked, taking this as a good sign that she was fine. After a few more moments, the small squid sat up.

"Uhhgg…" the purple inkling opened her eyes, "…Giallu?"

"You gave us a real bad scare, how are you feeling?" Giallu asked. If she begged to sleep longer, he wouldn't listen. Spectra came over to them.

"I feel like I was stuck in a dryer again…" Roxo let out a sigh. She tried to stand up, only to instantly fall down like her legs had no strength left in them. "Ow! …Yay! I only have partial loss of feelings in my body this time!" the purple inkling cheered. The other two looked to each other. They simply helped her back on the boxes she had been resting on.

"I can't get your rabbit to turn back on…" Giallu explained, "I think he's been down since you two disconnected."

"Did you try turning the crank the other way?" Roxo suggested. This made the yellow squid blink in surprise briefly. He motioned Spectra to go try it.

"I'm glad you're alright," Giallu said, relieved, but also impressed by the tricks she had hidden up her sleeve.

"I've been through worse, that's a new record for how long I lasted in that form though," Roxo happily chimed. They then began to hear that familiar metallic clanking noise. After a few more moments, Kanin got back up, retracting the crank back into its head.

"You were turning it the wrong way this whole time," Spectra spoke to Giallu. The yellow squid chuckled, embarrassed slightly.

"Kanin! Hey! You did great today, boy!" Roxo proudly let her robotic companion come to her side and hop into her lap to cuddle up to its owner. She ran her hand on its metal back to pet it.

"So… is that limb numbness something we should be worried about?" Spectra chirped, wondering if they needed to take her cousin to a hospital.

"It'll wear off in a few hours. Unless I have more brain damage, then I'll have to figure something else out," Roxo assured, but her wording made them more concerned than anything.

"Well come on. You should get some more rest," Spectra said. Kanin hopped out of its master's lap when the yellow squid picked up the purple tentacled inkling, before they began to walk away to leave Hammerhead Bridge.

"Why do you have to carry me?" Roxo asked, her head tilted up to her new friend, and her eyes averted to Kanin hopping along behind them while Spectra walked beside them.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm kidnapping you," Giallu replied with a smile on his face. The purple squid leaned her head into his chest, trying to relax and enjoy being carried. The day had been long, but was starting to draw to an end, as the sun was starting to set.

* * *

That afternoon, the small group spent the time back at Giallu's apartment. They had no idea what to do much for a celebration, so they simply ordered a few pizzas and enjoyed the rest of the day together.

"They're talking about what happened on Hammerhead Bridge on the news," Giallu was seated on the couch with Kanin beside him. Spectra was eating probably her eighth slice to calm her nerves that had been stressed beyond her limits.

"The largest salmonid attack in Inkopolis happened today! It was in the middle of a turf war and would have been worse if three random squids hadn't shown up and helped free the others from their spawns," the reporter spoke aloud, after interviewing the eight people who had spent a while around Hammerhead Bridge making sure it was all clear.

"I was hoping I'd get on TV…" Spectra sighed. The yellow squid shook his head. Roxo popped out from the back room in a new set of fresh clothes she had purchased late last night. It was a bright red shirt underneath some overalls.

"You feeling better?" Giallu asked, watching her hop onto the couch beside him and her pet, using the coffee table as a foot rest.

"Yep!" Roxo answered, looking at the television, "I almost have all feeling back in my body, aside from my toes."

"There'll still be a few attacks, but they'll lighten up when they start to realize there are no more eggs to find," Spectra explained to them. She had spent a good chunk of her working life fighting those very creatures after all, and the rest raising them. The white squid soon realized what time it was now. "I better get home, the little ones need me," the young salmonid caretaker stretched as she stood up.

"It's barely seven though," Roxo stated.

"Sorry, but If they don't get their exercise to burn out that energy before bed, they'll be up all night," Spectra apologized. She did take out a pen and paper to write something down, she then gave it to her cousin.

"It was great meeting you come by whenever you want," Spectra then left the apartment. Roxo had been given her phone number, so they could stay in touch.

"Well, seems like we made her come out of her shell a lot," Giallu assumed. Hoping everything would be fine with her now. Though he doubted she would be public about her tiny salmonid nursery.

The purple squid nodded, putting the phone number away in her overalls' big pocket. "You know, Giallu… there's one thing about you I couldn't understand for the life of me," Roxo started. Since she first woke up in Inkopolis, he had been with her every step of the way when it came to hunting down her family members, even if it wasn't voluntary at the start.

"What's that? You already know about my team hopping and what happened to my leg," the yellow squid boy replied. She could see the scar well enough from where she sat.

"Why do you want to help so many so badly? You think less than me when you figure you can help somebody… you could've called the police about the salmonid attack but instead you were ready to try and deal with it all by yourself," Roxo explained her point to him. It was almost as if he was willing to do the craziest of things if it meant he could help even one person, no matter how bad they treated him.

"I dunno… I guess I just don't want anybody to wind up like me," the yellow inkling rubbed his leg. This was the first time it had emitted a decent amount of pain all day, now that he thought about it. "A snarky… sarcastic… half miserable coward… Who can't even handle a serious talk without feeling pain," Giallu sighed. He didn't blame his leg for how he was in life, but it certainly did little to help change matters.

"You… think just that?" Roxo mused.

"Yeah… I know I can't make it in high rank with how I am right now, so I figure if I can help boost others up there I at least am doing something," he explained. His leg was far too distracting to be reliable. No matter how much he trained in the highest ranks, even momentary distractions could cost entire games. "But enough about me. What about you, Roxo? How're you able to just do anything without thinking at all. But somehow be excited for the smallest things. Even if they're bad they barely bother you."

"Well…" Roxo breathed, "I don't know. I guess because I wouldn't have gotten Kanin working if I had been afraid of every turn of a screw. Or every time he exploded."

The robotic rabbit scratched the side of its head with its foot, far from interested in the conversation.

"You're on a journey to show off a robotic rabbit to people who never even heard of you, and won't stop until they acknowledge your link to them… but you act like it's a walk to the store," Giallu pointed out as he grabbed another slice of pizza for himself.

"I'm hoping that I can throw a giant party with them all someday… It's a nice reason to visit all these different places, no matter how big or small, it'll make my home all the more unique when I do go back one day too," Roxo spoke out the scatterbrained mind of hers train of thought. She put an entire slice of pizza in her mouth and ate it whole like it was nothing. She looked at the weather on the tv for tomorrow. "Thanks for helping me… even if you didn't want to at first."

Giallu was staring in surprise at how she ate that pizza whole. He shook off the shock. "It was either help you or be guilt tripped by everyone I've helped this last year… I barely felt any pain with you around," Giallu had a weak smile on his face with a light blush, embarrassed to confess that.

"Don't worry. I'll be out of your tentacles tomorrow," Roxo declared, she laid down on the couch while resting her feet on his lap as if trying to subtly ask for a massage.

"What do you mean?" Giallu shoved her feet out of his lap, much to her disappointment, "I said you could stay here as long as you needed to."

"Well, I already found all of my living relatives in Inkopolis… but I have more places to go. Algae Alcove is next," the purple squid pulled her journal out from her overalls. She also pulled out a small packet of very bright and vibrant stickers that she had bought sometime this morning.

"You seriously bought Squid Sister and Off the Hook stickers?" her newest friend rhetorically laughed, seeing the familiar idols as stickers with their logos.

"They're awesome, right?" Roxo giggled, the popular stars were becoming famous even outside of Inkopolis evidently.

" _Right…_ But you really are going to leave that soon? I figured you'd want to spend a few days at least exploring Inkopolis more," Giallu found it hard to believe that someone like her would leave probably the biggest city they had ever been in within a long time. He watched her cover the Inkopolis journal page with the stickers and two photos, as if to mark her completion of the family hunt in this big city. One photo was of Blobter and the other of Spectra.

"I'd get caught up and stay for too long. I still have to find a lot more of my family members or friends of my family," Roxo responded. Kanin had taken the photos, his master thinking it would be a good idea to begin gathering pictures of her family and friends now. She then noticed a small game console rested on the side of his television. "Why don't we play?" she offered.

"Why not?" the yellow inkling nodded, getting up to get her controllers.

"Oh, and one more thing."

"What is it- _**geh!**_ " Giallu was blinded by a bright flash of light momentarily. He was able to see Kanin spit a Polaroid out of its mouth. After a few moments the image began to show his surprised mug.

"There we go! I wanted your picture to for the journal," Roxo hummed, putting his image into the book now letting one of the many stickers hold it in place.

"You did that just so you could have an advantage, didn't you?" Giallu rubbed his burning eyes.

"Yep!" Roxo laughed. The yellow squid wanted to get revenge, but when he approached, he tripped over the coffee table, falling into the floor with a hard thud.

"Ow! My leg!"

"Are you okay?"

" _Y-_ yeah... no…"

"Kanin, go try and find the pliers again, please!"

"Wait, find the what?!"

While the two wrestled back and forth, the robotic rabbit shook its head, its ears swishing with each slight movement. It just laid down and let the crank pop out of its head, pretending to be asleep again while the noise of the two new friends play fighting filled the air.

* * *

The sun rose behind the clouds the day after that. Inkopolis was having a rather bad rainstorm currently. There was no lightning, but in trade it seemed to give three times as much water.

"Do you feel up to carrying me again, Kanin?" Roxo chirped to her robotic friend. They had snuck out from Giallu's home in order to avoid a complicated farewell. Now here they stood early in the morning, at the edge of Inkopolis where the warm glow the city had seemed even more prominent, like it was begging for the freshest people to come to it, like a moth to a flame.

"Don't want me to oversleep again huh?" she giggled. Kanin gave an agreeing nod. The rain continued to heavily pour on them as they stood there, unable to decide if they should wait for the storm to pass or not before they left the town.

"Guess stuffing you full of groceries took up all your carry-on space too… Next time we stop, we'll work on the schematics more for the new bot," the purple squid told Kanin. the pink bunny seemed to just simply be irritated from being stuck out in the rain now.

Roxo was confused when the rain suddenly stopped. She saw a hand gripping a large splatbrella being held over them, to stop the water from pelting them.

"You're _ **REALLY**_ loud when you try to be sneaky you know that?"

Roxo and Kanin turned around to see the yellow squid standing there with three varying sized bags on his back.

"Giallu?" Roxo squeaked out nervously, " _W-_ what are you doing here?"

"You made me realize a lot yesterday… I'm afraid of letting others down and haven't been able to be dedicated to anything without getting scared of the future, or just failure," the yellow squid started leaving out how that terror made his leg hurt a lot. "So, I decided… I'm going to help you find everyone in that journal."

" _You…_ really want to come with me? It's a lot of moving, and I don't know what could happen in any of these places," Roxo looked to Kanin, in disbelief at the proposal.

"You told me yesterday you wished you could bring a relative or friend of the family on your adventures, but didn't want to rip them out of their lives," he quoted her from the conversation they had when they were trying to find Spectra in the first place. "I'd like to think I'm a friend of your family now. Plus I don't have any other life to live for otherwise."

Roxo stood, awestruck and trembling with building joy. She longed to hear this ever since she started this adventure of hers. She pulled him into a tight hug.

"Is that a yes?" he asked, looking down to see Kanin rubbing against his leg.

"Yes! You can come with me to the ends of the world! I'll even make you something, so you can walk easier!" Roxo eagerly exploded, as she looked up to him with her teary eyes. Giallu patted her back as he laughed.

"I'm glad to hear it… we'll head out once the rain stops. for now, let's grab a bite to eat, I'm sure you skipped breakfast," Giallu offered, motioning to the nearby fast food joint.

"That'd be nice…" Roxo nodded, feeling overwhelmed with joy at the feeling that she would be no longer lonely. She began to walk with Giallu to get a late breakfast before their long journey out of Inkopolis began. Kanin began to happily hop along to follow them, not wanting to be in the rain any longer.

 _"Dedicating myself to something for a lot longer than a month… I've been needing to do something like this for a long time,"_ Giallu thought to himself as he held the splatbrella with one hand and had Roxo crushing his other hand with her grip. He saw that bright grin on her face, this one was far brighter than her normal smile when she was happy.

 _ **"I think I found someone to help for a lifetime now… and I'm as happy as can be… Though joining a family this large… what are the chances she has relatives crazier than her?"**_


End file.
